Non-local students too affected by unrest in Kashmir
NL Correspondent
SRINAGAR: The ongoing unrest might have taken a heavy toll on Kashmiri students but the non-local students are too affected as the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Srinagar continues to remain shut.
Around 2500 non-local students of NIT Srinagar who had left the Valley following the unrest are now refusing to return back to the campus and have been mounting pressure on the centre's Human Resource Department either “shift the NIT Srinagar outside Kashmir or assign them another campus”.
“We won't know whether the educational activities will be resumed here or not,” said a group of local students. “Many non-local students are reluctant to return to Kashmir amid the ongoing situation in the Valley and their studies are also affected.”
A senior official of the NIT, said many non-local students have written to the HRD ministry that they won't return to the Valley. “These students have been demanding shifting of NIT outside Kashmir probably in Jammu,” the official said.
This is the second time within eight months when there is such a demand from non-locals. Earlier it was in April when a similar demand was made when there was a scuffle between non-locals and locals over a cricket match.
Registrar NIT Srinagar F A Mir, said the students had gone on semester break after appeared in the exams. “But then they could not come due to the unrest. So far they have not returned back as teaching activities have not been resumed yet,” he said.
He said the dates for registration of new semesters have also been extended. “So far no decision has been taken when the teaching will be resumed as it all depends on the situation. But the NIT has put the e-lecturers on its website but the practical works will only be done once students come here,” he said.
NIT was established as a Regional Engineering College in 1960, the majority of the students were from the Kashmir Valley. In 2003, REC, Srinagar, was converted into an NIT and with it the demography of the campus changed: of the estimated 3000 students enrolled, around 2500 are from outside the Valley.
